Day of Giving – VOTE for Your Favorite Non-profit

UPDATE 10/13: We just made a donation on PittsburghGives.org to BikePGH – which received over 40% of the votes! Thanks to everyone who voted. ALSO – wanted to clarify that the match is a prorated share of the total $500,000 – not a dollar for dollar match – a change from last year. This is still a great way to help your favorite organization boost their fundraising. Donations will be accepted until midnight on October 13, 2010.

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For the second year in a row – the Pittsburgh Foundation is organizing the Day of Giving – on October 13, 2010 the Pittsburgh Foundation will match all donations of $25 or more that are made on their website. This year there are $500,000 in matching funds available.

The donation period lasts from Midnight to Midnight – get your credit cards ready because the matching funds last year went quickly. This is a great way to easily double your contribution to your favorite Pittsburgh non-profit.

Here is some background info on just a few of the non profit organizations that are participating in the Day of Giving – there are many AMAZING organizations that deserve your financial support. I just wanted to take a moment to highlight a few of these in case you didn’t know who they are and what they do.

Bethlehem Haven – Bethlehem Haven is a women’s shelter that has been providing housing and support for homeless women in Pittsburgh. Bethlehem Haven also operates Ambiance Boutiques in Regent Square, Oakmont and Lawrenceville – all three are consignment shops – helping to recycle Pittsburgh fashion and add to the neighborhood business districts while raising money for the shelter.

Bricolage – a unique theater/performance company that has an awesome performance space in the Cultural District. The term “bricolage” means to make something from what you have at hand. Bricolage has been creating some exciting and engaging performances for Pittsburgh audiences with their Midnight Radio performance series.

Bike Pittsburgh – Bike Pittsburgh has been doing some amazing work promoting cycling in Pittsburgh. Even if you aren’t a cyclist – this organizations deserves your support – because their work has helped to put Pittsburgh on the map with the national bicycle community too.

Strong Women, Strong Girls – was founded by a Harvard student and now has chapters in Pittsburgh, Boston and Miami. Strong Women, Strong Girls pairs college students with middle school girls for a structured after school program. The college women are also mentored by women in the Pittsburgh community. I had the honor of participating in one of the activities for the college women last year. The enthusiam from the participants in the program is amazing and it is exciting to see multiple generations of Pittsburgh women working together.

Venture Outdoors – offers tons of programs year round to get more people outdoors and operates Kayak Pittsburgh. Venture Outdoors has continued to not only offer programming for adults but has expanded their work with kids in summer and school programs too.

You can check out the entire list here. Which organizations would you donate to and please share your knowledge about other Pittsburgh non-profit organizations in the comments below.

VOTEfor which oganization will get a donation from IheartPGH.
This summer we have earned more ad revenue – not enough to quit our day jobs – but enough to help cover the cost of the site and support some Pittsburgh projects. Since you, our dear readers, have kindly tolerated the ads, we thought it makes sense for you to choose which non profit gets the donation. While not a huge chunk of change we want to donate our most recent ad revenue check of $50 to the Day of Giving. Choose from 1 of the 5 organizations listed above or enter the name of any of the participating organizations from the Day of Giving list.

The poll closes just before Day of Giving starts on October 13.

[polldaddy poll=3908432]

We wish we could contribute to many of the Pittsburgh non-profits but that is just not possible at this time. We hope this will serve as an opportunity to share and learn more about other organizations and to start a conversation about supporting non-profits year round.